Solar car race kicks off 30th anniversary with a fresh challenge

This concept car uses its own reconnaissance drone to spot traffic jams

The idea of receiving traffic updates on your sat nav may suddenly seem tawdry next to this more futuristic alternative dreamed up by Renault: If you're driving along in its "KWID" concept car and you're worried about jams up ahead, you simply launch a quadrocopter drone from the car's roof, send it skyward using a control app on your tablet and then survey the road through its camera. Would it be distracting, trying to perceive two views at once without the multitasking skills of an Apache pilot? Whose insurer would pay out if your drone pranged someone else's? Fortunately, these questions need not concern us, as Renault readily admits that the KWID will probably never see the light of an assembly plant. And in any case, if the technology does come about one day, the parallel advent of semi-autonomous cars and mind-controlled drones would surely make it practical.